To the Dogs or Whoever
by katiekitten
Summary: There are times in life when what you think and what you feel equate to the same thing. This was not one of these times. Deisaku. Second of a collection of oneshots. x3
1. To the Dogs or Whoever

**To the Dogs or Whoever**

_In-between the apples and the chloroform_

And there he was. Again. Sitting opposite her in all of his pompous, senior year arrogance, cocky smirk in place as he watched her fruitlessly struggle against the utterly stupid task she'd been set for the fifth time this week. She could feel her teeth grinding together automatically at his unrelenting stare, refusing to look up in his direction as she pummelled the stupid- _stupid_ piece of clay in her fingers.

Why was art so important anyway? It wasn't as if she'd need it in the future, she was going to become a _surgeon _for crying out loud- not some pansy-assed artist who holed himself in his attic and sent his ears to his girlfriends for kicks.

The delicate arch she'd been moulding for the last twenty minutes caved beneath her fingers after she rubbed her thumb along the underside too hard and she growled, mashing the entire piece back into an unrecognisable pulp and resisting the urge to bash her reportedly large forehead into the condemned thing.

Yes, a _surgeon,_ who spent all her time saving lives in a clean, white emergency room, and needed to be as good at art as a fish needed to be good at flying. So why the hell was it so important to the school that she got a good grade in this stupid subject? She was acing the rest, in her sophomore year as well, so what did one 'C' matter? Why did they care?

Why did _he_ care?

She rolled her shoulders, still pointedly ignoring her personal stalker (in the art rooms, at least. She rarely saw him anywhere else, thank god) as she brushed the mutilated clay to the side with a selection of similarly butchered pieces and picked up a new block, staring at it for a second as she considered what to do with it. Finally deciding on a simple vase shape, (if first graders could do it, then she damn well could) she picked up the rolling pin and-

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, yeah."

-All but glared at the man opposite her. He'd shifted slightly to the side, still slouched back in his chair, startlingly blue eye watching her with something fringing on incredulous amusement.

"And what, pray," she spat out, lowering the rolling pin. "Would you know about it?"

He shrugged nonchalantly, flicking his low blond fringe to the side as he fixed a bemused eye on the rolling pin. "Suit yourself."

She shook herself mentally and told herself to ignore him, taking a small breath before continuing molding the clay. Biting her lip slightly, she completely forgot about her silent observer as she focused on her task.

_Flatten the clay until it's about half a centimeter thick, cut it into centimeter wide strips, take one of them and… _

"Told you, yeah."

…Stare at it stupidly as you wonder how one earth to get the strips into the nice, rounded snakes you'd seen your younger brother make without rolling air into the centre and making it explode in the kiln. Stubbornly ignoring the unwanted comment –_oh, how she wanted to kick him right now-,_ she grabbed a strip and started pinching the edges, trying to get it to smush into itself into the shape she wanted. Completely focusing on what she was doing- _oh go_ round_ you stupid thing-_ she completely missed the heavy sigh opposite her, and the warning scrape of chair legs on the wooden floor before a set of warm, slender hands enclosed around her own from behind, teasing the clay from her dusty fingers.

"You do it like this, yeah," a low voice rumbled beside her ear, making this funny shiver run through her otherwise frozen body as he leaned forward, long hair tickling her neck as he cleared away the strips and grabbed a fresh piece. Forcing herself to breath- _when had she stopped?_ – she watched him from the corner of her eye as he tore a piece of clay off and started to roll it between his fingers, coaxing the clay to elongate and place it to the side.

Before long, a row of perfectly formed snakes faced her, ready to be twirled. She eyed them with mild astonishment as he grunted with satisfaction, briefly casting an eye over his work before releasing her from their impromptu embrace and gazing at her while crossing his arms, that all too familiar cocky smirk crawling over his features.

"_That_," he elaborated, sounding all too pleased with himself, "is how you do it."

He rolled his shoulders, not bothering to mask a yawn as he trouped back over to his seat, leaving her to watch him go, still speechless.

"Although, yeah," he rumbled as he slumped back into his seat, fixing her with a slightly disbelieving eye, "you have to be the only person I've ever met who hasn't been able to create a _vase_ of all things. It's a wonder you do well at anything else, yeah."

Her eyebrows snapped down immediately, voice found as she opened her mouth to yell back in defence, anger flaring comfortably back to a position of normalcy once more. Growling as he just shook his head through all of her arguments, a grin crawling once more onto his smug little face, she fell back to ignoring him and steamed on with her work, not noticing how his features seemed to softened as he rested his head on his palm and resumed watching her once more.

End.

xD; The first of a selection of Deisaku oneshots, although not all of them will be put here- just the short-ish ones. Yeah, this one is more than slightly cutesy - I've just found myself _in love_ with AU Akatsuki fanfiction, in particular high school fics. As odd as that is. xD; And Deisaku is one of my favourite pairings in all time, so I just had to write it. xD

The title and little note comes from the song, surprise-surprise: "To the Dogs or Whoever" by Josh Ritter. x3


	2. Warmer Climate

A very, very quick author's note: I'd advise listening to the song 'Again and Again' by The Bird and the Bee while reading. If you want. x3

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**Warmer Climate**

She hated him.

He'd killed someone she knew, tried _repeatedly_ to kill her best friend, tried to kill _her-_ he and what he stood for opposed everything she'd ever lived and fought for, for crying out loud, for _eighteen years_ and god be damned if she was just going to throw that all away for a stupid, _stupid_ _thing_-

And he just stood there. Smug, misplaced confidence radiating from his sorry being as he waited just a few feet away, tattered black cloak with those almost-comical clouds, the ones that made her want to snort in derision every time she saw it if it weren't for the murderers that wore them, hanging loose across his shoulders.

She hated him. She hated him-!

"Sakura."

-Especially that stupid, ridiculously deep voice that completely defied his lithe appearance, always seeming to rumble through to her very bones and making these stupid butterflies start bouncing around her stomach of all things-

"Why are you here?" She bit out through gritted teeth, glaring bright, jade eyes at the cloak, the clouds, and generally just avoiding meeting the dull blue gaze that just made the stupid butterflies worse, damn it-

She crossed her arms tightly across her chest, attempting to stamp out her treacherous thoughts, nearly missing the carefully blank way he watched her as he copied her movement.

"I could ask you the same thing, yeah."

She just couldn't understand it– she knew what this man was capable of, seen with her own eyes the brutality he dealt freely, _gleefully_- so why was she here? Without back up, without a word to anyone, with barely a kunai and only her chakra-enhanced strength- this was not the Sakura she knew. This was not herself. She was a cautious, law abiding, and above all loyal shinobi to her friends and her village, so why had she come here?

Why had he?

"Shut up," she growled, resisting the urge to bury her hands in her hair and tear at it in anger and instead taking a shaky breath, trying to calm herself. Control. She needed self control. Control yourself and you control the situation. She repeated the rule like a mantra in her head as she tried to squash the warmth that had fluttered up _again, bugger it all_, against her will.

"Why, yeah?" he questioned, tipping his head to the side and sending dun strands slipping across his shoulders, a stark contrast to the dusty black as his eyes focused on her own. She angrily avoided his gaze and then he smirked, shifting his weight to his other foot. "You scared?"

Her head snapped up in fury, fists clenching.

"No!"

She cursed herself mentally as he finally caught her gaze and held it, his single, visible, somehow _smirking -_ she had no idea how – with-some-sort-of-sick-triumph-that-his-ploy-had-worked- blue eye holding her there and seeming to pierce straight through her, just as she knew it would, the bastard-

"Then why, yeah?"

"I despise you," she hissed, gathering her will power to drag her eyes away, fighting her rampant emotions as she tried to glare at him. She shouldn't have come, she knew this was going to happen- She wasn't a naïve little school girl swooning over her first crush, she'd recognised the signs, understood the meaning; so why couldn't she control it? Why did a single stupid word from him, of all bloody people, have her blushing and stuttering like a love-struck imbecile-

"Really, yeah?"

-A crack in the wall, water trickling then flooding through-

She couldn't take it anymore.

"Just shut up!"

She stomped forward and grabbed him by the collar, all of her emotions and thoughts whirling around her in a chaotic frenzy as she dragged him down and crashed her lips onto his - screw the rules, for christ's sake- _this_ was what she needed,_ this_ was the release- pouring all of pent up feelings, frustration and anger into the almost savage kiss. He froze for a second in surprise before responding with equal force, a hand rising and running through soft pink curls to grasp the back of her head as the other tugged her closer. Her head swam from a bout of unexpected light-headedness as he slanted his mouth further over hers, pulse pounding in her ears but she held on anyway, embracing the feelings with open arms.

Breaking free when her lungs couldn't take it anymore, she slumped forward onto his chest and closed her eyes, for the moment ignoring all of the doubts and fears that had plagued her over the last couple of weeks and just _enjoying_ the gentle warmth that emanating beneath her cheek as she caught her breath from the… surprisingly nice –but it shouldn't have been, it should've been as horrible and as cold as his heart was supposed to be- kiss. He raised a poised eyebrow at the oddly subdued gesture, surprise still flickering across his features but he clasped his arms almost affectionately around her anyway, resting his chin lightly on the top of her head.

"I hate you," she whispered into his chest, all of the anger from before gone, leaving her to fight off her impending fatigue as she almost clung to him to keep herself steady. He laughed lightly at that, lowering his head to whisper lightly into her hair, the act making those _condemned butterflies_ that was the _whole trigger for this stupid situation_ start fluttering in her chest once more.

"I hate you too, yeah."

End.

…xD;

Yeah.

'Twas an experiment. Tried to find the right emotion. Probably failed. Feel free to shoot. xD

Reason for author's note- that was originally going to be the song for this, it was what I was listening to when I got the idea, (The 'I hate you, I want you," and 'Say my name, say my name, say my stupid name' parts in particular. :x) - but the music was too distracting, so I only listened to it before I started writing, and Warmer Climate got stuck in my head instead. So. I changed the song. xD;

Writing song: Warmer Climate, Snow Patrol.


End file.
